


With a Little Help from My Friends

by Taste_of_Suburbia



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Fandom Stocking 2017, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Hypothermia, Implied/Referenced Torture, Multi, Romance, Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 21:03:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13279842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_of_Suburbia/pseuds/Taste_of_Suburbia
Summary: In which Alec and Max hate winter, and Original Cindy finallyunderstands.





	With a Little Help from My Friends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ranalore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ranalore/gifts).



> Written for ranalore for Fandom Stocking, somewhat following your prompt of fairy tale AU. Happy 2018! Note that this can be read as romance or family/friendship.

 

“I _hate_ winter,” Alec grumbled, viciously brushing snow off his jeans and long-sleeved shirt. It was a lost cause, given more snow kept raining down on him with each passing moment.

“Come over here, fool, ‘fore you freeze to death.”

Alec obeyed without a quip of his own, though he chose to sit across the fire from her, the fire that she and she _alone_ was trying to coax to life. Leave it to Alec to give it to someone else to keep going, leave it to the fool to complain and sulk when things weren’t going his way. OC almost snorted, but instead she rolled her eyes and shot him a glare.

“What, ya can’t see me over here? Do I need to get up and drag ya over here?”

Alec knew better than to argue with that, finally settling down next to her. Despite his endless litany of muttering complaints, OC could feel warmth emanate from him. He pressed closer without her having to warn him a _third_ time, hands practically resting on her knees. “Want some help with that?”

“Gee, what’dya think?”

He took over the job of building a somewhat decent fire, though OC shouldn’t have been so surprised when he had it blazing within minutes. “It’s all in the wrists,” he smirked at her when he caught her looking. She rolled her eyes again, thought about smacking him, settled for pushing herself closer until she was nearly on top of him. They sat there in silence while the snow continued to pummel them, squinting through the rapidly descending darkness. “I’m worried about Max,” Alec murmured.

_He ain_ _’t the only one._

As if on cue, Max stepped out of the trees holding an armful of firewood. “Miss me?” OC would have jumped up in relief, though she opted to stay right where she was, pressed up against a very warm Alec. “I miss anything exciting?” She shot Max a warning look when she caught her staring at the two of them with amusement and just a twinge of fondness. OC didn’t quite blame her, truth be told, given she often caught herself looking at Max and Alec like that. Those two had a bond like no other, tied with fragility to their past, tied securely to Original Cindy’s love for both of them.

Maybe she was the glue that kept them together, forcing them to shut up and get over their issues and finally realize just how much they were made for each other. Destined to stick together.

“Hurry up and sit yourself down by the fire, boo. I’m getting colder over here. If I’d known you two were the human equivalent of furnaces, well, I wouldn’t have let either one of you out of my sight.”

“She’s pushy,” Alec pouted. “And possessive.”

He _did_ get a punch for that.

Max dropped a few logs into the fire before sitting on Original  Cindy’s other side. In gratitude, OC’s internal temperature immediately ratcheted up a few degrees, causing her to feel something else too: how tense Max and Alec were, how they exchanged half-glances occasionally in between gazing at the fire so intensely OC wondered if they even saw it at all.

The elephant was in the room once more, a certainty whenever Max and Alec were faced with extreme circumstances. OC didn’t dare say the word: Manticore. They were all thinking about it well enough.

She’d never directly asked them how they could endure such temperatures, but it was undoubtedly what they were dwelling on at that moment.

“It was colder the day I broke out,” Max spoke, wrapping arms around herself as if mere touch could stave off the memories. “Good thing this is what they trained us for. I can hardly feel it most of the time.”

The way Max said it ensured that OC knew it was a lie. She could feel it, every bit of it, she just took a while longer to die from it than actual humans like OC did. Original Cindy tried not to tremble, blocking her mind from straying into the horrible experiments Manticore must have inflicted on the two people in the world who were _most_ important to her. _Don_ _’t go there. They wouldn’t want you to._

“Exposure to extreme temperatures,” Alec murmured, his throat hoarse with unshed tears. He was a comical sight, OC realized, hands shoved into his armpits, hunched over the meager remains of their fire. But he was broken too, smaller than OC had thought possible, so vulnerable in a world that didn’t want him, couldn’t care about him, refused to cut him a break. She knew he had stayed in longer than Max and it _showed._

Sometimes she wanted to give into Alec and ignore it, everything boiling underneath the surface ready to rear its horrific head, but mostly she just wanted to pummel him and kiss him at the same time.

Alec and Max looked so naked next to her, both physically and emotionally. _She_ was the only one that was sufficiently warm, the two having stripped off most of their clothes for her.

Original Cindy couldn’t see Alec’s wings, or Max’s, but she imagined they were trembling with the way Max was stroking air near to Alec’s back.

She had known Max’s hesitance towards the cold for a while now, but from the way Max shot her a worried look, OC imagined it bore worse memories for Alec.

OC wondered how their wings dealt in the cold. She longed to reach out, to comfort Alec as Max was, but she needn’t have even wished for it. Max reached for her hand and placed it on top of Alec’s wing, the one closest to her. OC almost gasped: it was so thin and lightweight, silken and soft, and it was shaking tremendously.

“After I left, Alec…, they pushed you more, I know they did.” Max’s words were choked with understanding, a kinship that Original Cindy would never be able to offer, but she had more than enough love to annoy Alec with. It would have to be enough. Alec nodded, and in that nod OC could see the imprint the cold and the snow had left upon him. He was terrified by it, terrified of never finding his way through it, drowning underneath it.

Max took one of his hands and Original Cindy took the other, her other hand holding Alec’s wing tightly but not tight enough to cause pain. She was sure of that by the way he never made to pull away from her.

She remembered what Max had said not so long before: to torture a half-fae and half-human with cold, to torture a _summer_ fae with cold was _cruel_. Manticore had only wanted them for their slightly above average strength, for their amazing healing abilities, but then they pushed them further and further until they felt less than fae, less than human, _nothing._

But they were everything in the world to Original Cindy.

“No more camping trips so close to Christmas then,” she settled on. “But you're making it up to me with a damn fine Christmas tree.”

In the darkness, pressed close to the fire, a wallowing Alec betrayed a slight smile.

**FIN**


End file.
